Christian's Death Verdict Spurs Holy Row In Pakistan

Activists of the Pakistani fundamentalist party Jamiat Talaba Islam protest last month in Karachi, carrying signs decrying blasphemers and chanting slogans against Asia Bibi, a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy. Politicians and conservative clerics are at odds over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Asia Bibi, sentenced to hang for defaming the Prophet Muhammad. (AFP/Getty Images)

It began in the summer of 2009 as a quarrel over water in a sweltering farm field in the province of Punjab. When the heated words were over, Asia Noreen Bibi was charged under the strict blasphemy laws of predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

A Christian wife and mother, the woman commonly known as Asia Bibi was convicted by a district court last month of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. The punishment is mandatory death and Asia Bibi became the first female in Pakistan to be sentenced to hang for blasphemy.

Asia Bibi, a Roman Catholic, says she did not commit the crime. The case has drawn international condemnation, and Pope Benedict XVI has called for Asia Bibi's release.

But in a country where conservative religious forces are gathering strength, fundamentalists have called for her head.

At a recent protest after Friday's prayers in Rawalpindi, a small crowd of bearded men chanted: "Asia, the blasphemer: Hang her, hang her."

Asia Bibi at a prison in Sheikhupura, near Lahore, on Nov. 20. She appeared in a televised interview from her prison, tearfully denying the blasphemy charges that led to her death sentence.

Such protesters who often eclipse the country's more peaceful majority views are passionate that Pakistan's blasphemy law should not be questioned let alone changed.

The leader of the demonstration, Mohammad Saleem of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Party, said: "Our country is Islamic and we are Muslims. We want justice."

Under the law, defiling the Quran merits imprisonment for life. Defaming the sacred name of Muhammad merits death. The penalties were introduced in the 1980s under the dictatorship of General Zia Al Haq, who critics say used the measures to prop up his rule using Islam.

The protesting men pledged to "protect the dignity" of the Prophet and "to sacrifice our lives for Muhammad."

No one ever convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan has been executed.

The Rev. Samson Dilawar, a Catholic priest, with Ashiq Masih, husband of Asia Bibi, and daughter Sidra at a safe house where the family agreed to be interviewed.

Still, the life of Asia Bibi, a mother of two and stepmother of three, is at stake. A cleric has offered 500,000 rupees -- roughly $5,800 -- to anyone who kills the jailed woman, who is being held in the district jail in the city of Sheikhupura. The Taliban also have threatened retribution should she be spared, yet another sign the case has become a rallying point for extremists.

A Frightened Family

Within 24 hours of the Taliban warning, Asia Bibi's family fled their home in the Christian colony of Gloria in Sheikhupura, a 90-minute drive from Lahore.

On a recent night, Christmas carolers appeared in the darkened lanes of Gloria, an unexpected sight in a country where less than 2 percent of the population is Christian.

Community leaders helped NPR locate family members and set up an interview in a safe house with Ashiq Masih, Asia Bibi's husband.

The district jail in the town of Sheikhupura, where Asia Bibi has been held since June 2009 on charges that she blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad.

Looking drawn, Masih, a poor kiln worker who makes bricks for a living, said that his wife and family are in grave danger.

"Even if my wife does come out [of jail], she could be killed," he said, adding that her case is not the first of its kind.

"And it's not just Christians who are targeted. Muslims have also been charged with blasphemy. Christians are easy to implicate, though. If they talk about religion, they are accused of blasphemy. If a Christian touches the Holy Quran, he is accused of a crime. And here, petty issues get twisted into accusations of blasphemy," Masih said.

Salmaan Taseer is the governor of Punjab province, where Human Rights Watch says "social persecution and legal discrimination against religious minorities has become particularly widespread." Taseer has earned the wrath of Muslim fundamentalists for defending Asia Bibi as a poor Christian woman who should never have been charged and should be pardoned. He's calling for amendments to the country's strict blasphemy laws.

At trial, Asia Bibi's defense attorney called the charges a "fanciful drama" by a Muslim majority arrayed against a Christian minority.

When Asia Bibi offered her fellow farm hands water, they refused on the grounds that as a Christian she had made it impure. Both sides stoutly defended their faiths, and Asia Bibi was charged with blasphemy.

The Rev. Samson Dilawar, a parish priest who was wounded by gunmen in 1997 and saw his Catholic church burned to the ground in 2005, has been threatened by anonymous callers for assisting Asia Bibi.

He says she is not safe in prison and that the killing last year of a young Christian man accused of blasphemy in nearby Sialkot is a cautionary tale.

"That boy was killed in the jail. She can also be murdered in the jail as well. She can be killed anytime. So anything can happen," Dilawar said.

In July, two brothers who were Christian walked out of the Faisalabad courthouse facing charges of blasphemy when gunmen opened fire and killed them.

In the summer of 2009 in the town of Gojra, also in Punjab province, mobs attacked the Christian quarter, torching homes on rumors that members of the community had torn pages of the Quran. At least a half a dozen people burned to death.

Christians in Pakistan are ghettoized in the poorest housing, relegated to the most menial jobs and marginalized to the lowest socio-economic class.

Political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais says the blasphemy laws are nothing more than a "big stick" to intimidate "the other" -- Christians and other religious minorities -- into submission.

"And in most of the cases, it has become an instrument of personal vendettas, revenge and settling personal scores. And it is why this law needs to be revisited and re-examined," he said.

The blasphemy law has "bred intolerance in Pakistan," Rais said, for Christians, Hindus and members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect, whom Pakistan's constitution prohibits from even being called Muslims.

Blasphemy Cases Rise

Statistics from the National Commission for Justice and Peace, a human rights organization of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, show that accusations of blasphemy are on the rise, with more than 110 people accused last year.

Punjab Gov. Salmaan Taseer helped spur what has become Pakistan's first public debate over the blasphemy law when he visited Asia Bibi in jail last month and later told President Asif Ali Zardari she deserved clemency.

The president has ordered a review of the case, but a quick resolution to this emotional debate is not at hand.

"Before this, nobody was prepared to discuss this law. It will set the mullahs at your throat. And I said that she should be pardoned, and this is a travesty and shame that a poor woman like this who hasn't the means to defend herself [against] trumped-up charges," said Taseer, who is Muslim. "And in a country where your prime minister is Muslim, your president is Muslim, you're 95 percent Muslim -- what is the need for laws like this?"

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the law's repeal. A bill in parliament would shorten sentences and require a showing of criminal intent.

Such recommendations risk serious reprisals. But Lahore University of Management Sciences political scientist Rais says that wavering in the face of a fundamentalist backlash would damage Pakistan even more.

"Who is going to visit Pakistan? Who is going to invest in this country? Who is going to buy the goods produced by the Pakistanis? It hurts Pakistan in a big way," Rais said.

The Punjab's outspoken governor is resolute.

"Frankly, it's up to God to decide whether I'm a Muslim or not," Taseer said, "not some illiterate mullah to decide I'm a Muslim or not."

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

A Christian woman in Pakistan has been sentence to death. Her name is Aasia Norreen Bibi. She works as a farmhand and she was convicted on blasphemy charges in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation. Now the Vatican is calling for her release and Muslim fundamentalists are calling for her head. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from eastern Pakistan.

JULIE MCCARTHY: Outside the gate of the district jail here in Sheikhupura, a Sunday passes quietly. Inside sits Aasia Noreen Bibi, convicted of blaspheming the Prophet Mohammad and sentenced to die for the crime. A quarrel in a field among female farmhands escalated to charges of blasphemy. The case of Aasia, a Christian and a mother imprisoned here for the past 18 months, has sparked attention abroad and a fury at home.

(Soundbite of chanting in foreign language)

MCCARTHY: Aasis, the blasphemer - hang her, hang her, chants this small crowd of black bearded men after Friday prayers in Rawalpindi. The protesters, who can overshadow the peaceful majority view, are passionate that Pakistans blasphemy law not even be debated, let alone changed.

Under the law, defiling the Quran merits imprisonment for life. Defaming the sacred name of Muhammad merits death, a penalty introduced in the 1980's under Dictator General Zia Al Haq to prop up his rule using Islam, say critics.

CROWD: (Chanting in foreign language)

MCCARTHY: We will sacrifice our lives for Mohammad, the men shout. But it is the life of a mother of two and stepmother of three that is now in the balance. A cleric has offered nearly $6,000 to anyone who kills the jailed Aasia Bibi, the first woman in Pakistan to receive the death penalty for blasphemy. Even the Taliban has threatened retribution should she be spared. For Aasias family, these are frightening days.

The Talibans message was loud and clear: it was a direct threat. And as a result of that threat the family is now on the run. The family recently fled from this Christian colony of Gloria in the city of Sheikhupura 90 minutes outside Lahore. Community leaders help us find family members, knocking on doors and comparing notes over cell phones.

(Soundbite of cell phone conversation in foreign language)

MCCARTHY: As the search stretches into night, Christmas carolers brighten the dark lanes of Gloria.

(Soundbite of signing in foreign language)

MCCARTHY: Its an unexpected sight in a country where less than two percent of the population is Christian. Finally, the family is found and spirited to a safe house, where we await Ashiq Mesih, Aasias husband.

Thank you for coming out of hiding, momentarily, to see us. Could you tell us, do you feel in grave danger?

Mr. ASHIQ MESIH: (Foreign language spoken)

MCCARTHY: Youre saying there is much danger to yourself and to your family. And even if your wife does come out, you feel that she could be killed. Ashiq Mesih, as a Christian in Pakistan, did you live in fear even before this case, that you would run afoul of the law somehow, just by virtue of the fact that you're a minority here?

Mr. MESIH: (Foreign language spoken)

MCCARTHY: He says Aasias case is not the first. And its not just Christians who are targeted, Ashiq says. Muslims have also been charged with blasphemy. Christians are easy to implicate though, he says. If they talk about religion they are accused of blasphemy. If a Christian touches the Holy Quran hes accused of a crime, Ashiq says. And here, Aasias husband says, petty issues get twisted into accusations of blasphemy.

At trial, Aasias defense attorney called the charges a fanciful drama by a Muslim majority arrayed against a Christian minority. When Aasia offered her fellow farm hands water, they refused on the grounds that, as a Christian, she had made it Impure. Both sides stoutly defended their faiths and Aasia was charged with blasphemy.

Father Samson Dalawar, a parish priest who saw his church burned down in 2005, has been threatened by anonymous callers for assisting Aasia who he says is not safe in prison. He says the killing last year of a young Christian man accused of blasphemy in nearby Sialkot is a cautionary tale.

Father SAMSON DALAWAR (Parish Priest): So that boy was killed in the jail. She can also be murdered in the jail, as well. She can be killed anytime. Anything can happen.

MCCARTHY: In July, two brothers, who were Christian, walked out of the Faisalabad courthouse facing charges of blasphemy when gunmen opened fire and killed them. Christians in Pakistan are ghettoized in the poorest housing, relegated to the most menial jobs, and marginalized to the lowest socio-economic class. Political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais says the blasphemy laws are nothing more than a big stick to intimidate the other into submission.

Mr. RASUL BAKHSH RAIS (Political Analyst): And in most of the cases it has become an instrument of personal vendetta, revenge and settling personal scores. And it is why this law needs to be revisited and re-examined.

MCCARTHY: Rais says the law has bred intolerance in Pakistan, for Christians, Hindus, and members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect, whom the Constitution prohibits from even being called Muslims. Statistics from the National Commission for Justice and Peace, a Human Rights Body of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, show that accusations of blaspheming are on the rise, with more than 110 people accused last year.

Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer helped spur what has become Pakistans first public debate over the blasphemy law when he visited Aasia Bibi in jail and took her case to the President.

Governor SALMAAN TASEER (Punjab Governor): Before this, nobody was prepared to discuss this law, it will set the mullahs at your throat. And I said that she should be pardoned, and this is a travesty and shame that a poor women like this who hasnt the means to defend herself has trumped up charges. And in a country where your Prime Minister is Muslim, your President is Muslim, you know, youre 95 percent Muslim and what is the need for laws like this?

MCCARTHY: Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the laws repeal. A bill in Parliament would shorten sentences and require a showing of criminal intent. Even such recommendations risk serious reprisals. But analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais says wavering in the face of a fundamentalist backlash will damage Pakistan more.

Mr. REIS: Who is going to visit Pakistan? Who is going to invest in this country? Who is going to buy the goods produced by the Pakistanis? It hurts Pakistan in a big way.

MCCARTHY: The Punjabs outspoken Governor Tasser is resolute.

Governor SALMAN TASSER: Now, you know, frankly, it's for God were to decide whether I must live or not, not some illiterate mullah to decide whether Im a Muslim or not.

MCCARTHY: No one sentenced to die under the blasphemy law in Pakistan has actually been executed. And President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered a review of the case of Aasia Noreen Bibi. But a quick resolution to the emotional episode is not at hand.